Are you planning beyond the pandemic?
At times of crisis, short term tactical interventions may well be the best option. They can buy you time and demonstrate your willingness to act. For professional bodies thinking about how to weather the impact of Covid there is also comfort to be had from focusing on the here and now. Good housekeeping dictates you redouble your efforts to stay close to your members and provide reassurance and practical support. And yet...
In the hiatus between the pre-and post-Covid worlds there are good reasons for looking over the horizon. The practical experience of lockdown has thrown up plenty of examples of how things are likely to be different going forward from the re-writing of economic rules to the virtual office. It makes sense to think about how these changes could disrupt the way you operate and take active steps to manage the attendant opportunities and risks.
Here are five questions to help you give this exercise focus.
- What is your core purpose as a professional body and does this need to change? For example, organisations representing those working in retail may need to rethink their business model.
- What are likely to be your burning platform issues over the next 12-18 months and are you equipped to deal with these?
- In particular is your leadership imaginative and resilient enough and is your strategy and business plan flexible enough to accommodate the need to do things differently?
- Whose support are you going to require and is the quality of your relationship with these stakeholders where it needs to be?
- Would it matter if you did not exist?
This last question in particular is worth reflecting on. Covid-19 has forced many organisations to think hard about the value they create. Make the right tactical judgement calls but do so with a clear eye on the longer plan and how this might need to change.